A Lincoln Park man who allegedly made a series of false 911 calls about armed men on a North Side college campus has been sentenced to probation.
Michael Gallo, 54, pleaded guilty to two counts of felony false report in exchange for the 18-month probation term, according to court records. Judge Catherine Haberkorn handed down the sentence on July 7.
Gallo was accused of falsely reporting armed men on the Chamberlain University and neighboring DeVry campuses in November 2019. Police received similar calls on different days that month. The caller allegedly gave police dispatchers a license plate for the non-existent gunman. Prosecutors said the plate belonged to one of Gallo’s neighbors who worked on campus.
The schools’ campuses went on lockdown for each reported incident.
According to court records, after prosecutors charged Gallo with two felony counts of filing a false report, he filed additional false police reports against the same neighbor.
On November 13, 2019, Gallo allegedly told police that his neighbor threatened him with a handgun in the 800 block of West Willow. According to prosecutors, he later filed false reports of criminal damage to property against the neighbor.
Two weeks after police arrested Gallo for the school campus incidents, they arrested him again for the second set of allegedly false reports. They took him into custody at the Near North (18th) District station after he walked in and tried to file yet another report against his neighbor, according to CPD records.
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